Beginning in the 1970s and growing in popularity ever since, heavy metal subculture has often been seen as base, brainless, silly and sometimes frightening.Nevertheless, over the past 30 years metal has permeated popular culture and entered the common vernacular, affecting politics, film, fashion, cartoons, language, and art.Taking its title from I Still See the Black by heavy metal band Candlemass, We Still See the Black brings together a group of artists with a common interest in heavy metal and emphasizes the often insular sense of solidarity found within the subculture.For these artists heavy metal is a portal into alternative realms where darkness is a catalyst for change: rebellion, destruction, or transcendence. Each artist represented here not only makes reference to heavy metal culture in his or her work, but also collapses that culture, manipulating its aesthetic and historic aspects into a personal language or style. They create contemporary folklore, myth, and tragic comedy from their own lives as well as their shared (sub)cultural experience . This show will highlight Metal's unique emphasis on self-identity in relationship to fantasy and how seemingly misanthropic and chaotic expressions can create a sense of community where one might not be expected.We Still See the Black hopes to illuminate the chasm, the vortex, the void – so some may climb out and others may step in.